For those counting the money these days at SDSU, both events combine to raise an expensive issue:

Does that mean the Aztecs still will have to pay an exit penalty to leave the Mountain West?

If the league no longer exists in 2013, why should the Aztecs still have to pay?

“Those are good questions,” San Diego State Athletic Director Jim Sterk said.

The answer is worth about $2.5 million.To move its football team to the Big East in 2013, SDSU is being forced to forfeit its final year of revenue in the Mountain West for 2012-13 – estimated to be around $2.5 million.

Mountain West bylaws require it. Unfortunately for SDSU, those bylaws will be in effect through June 30, 2013, the same date that SDSU's exit penalty is due.

“We will follow our MWC bylaws precisely, and they will be in effect until July 1, 2013,” UNLV President Neal Smatresk said in an email. "Given that, I direct your question to Craig Thompson, but it would be my understanding that they would have to pay the exit fee."

Thompson, the Mountain West’s commissioner, didn’t immediately respond to a request for clarification.

It might come down to a single tick on the clock.

By contract, SDSU is resigning from the Mountain West effective June 30, 2013. It joins the Big East in football on July 1, 2013, according to the contract signed last December. The Mountain West is planning its last day of business to be June 30, 2013, according to plans announced this week.

If the penalty is enforced, the leftover Mountain West teams might keep SDSU’s revenue share that year.

That could change if SDSU fought to keep its share based on a simple argument: All Mountain West teams would be leaving the league effective June 30, 2013, not just SDSU.

NCAA basketball revenue: Another question Sterk considered this week was what will happen to SDSU’s men’s basketball revenue shares from the NCAA Tournament. After expenses are subtracted, the shares normally are divided equally among all of a conference’s members.

But if the conference dissolves, then what?

According to the NCAA, “if a conference disbands, each institution retains the units it earned.”

That’s good news for SDSU – a development that could help make up for decreased revenue sharing in the Big West.

Each NCAA Tournament game a team plays — excluding the championship — is worth around $250,000 annually for that team’s league over a rolling six-year period. From 2006-2011, the Mountain West had 24 games, including five from SDSU. Those 24 games brought the Mountain West more than $5.8 million. Roughly divided among nine members, that’s about $645,000 per school.

If SDSU kept its five game shares instead of sharing them during this period, it would have almost double that amount this year - about $1.25 million. Likewise, any NCAA game shares earned by SDSU this year or next would be retained by the school after the Mountain West dissolves.

That’ll change in 2013-14, when SDSU men’s basketball team joins Big West. As members of that league, SDSU's NCAA Tournament game shares will be divided up with other members. The Big West had the minimum one NCAA Tournament game per year from 2006-11, giving it a total of $1.45 million to be shared among its members.

Big West TV: In the meantime, SDSU is hoping the Big West provides better television exposure, if not better revenue right away.

SDSU’s contract with the Big West says the conference “shall make its best efforts to ensure that its media partner will distribute two SDSU non-conference home basketball games nationally. In the event the Big West Conference’s national media partner passes on the games, the conference shall make its best effort to identify other national distribution options with SDSU.”

Big East football divisions: The Big East added Memphis instead of Temple as a football member for 2013 in large part to fill out its proposed new western division. That division likely will include SDSU, Boise State, Houston and Southern Methodist.

But it’s not clear yet who the sixth western member will be, though Louisville is a good guess. Memphis is “only” two time zones away from San Diego.

“We needed a school that would fit into that West Division,” Big East Commissioner John Marinatto said last week when announcing the addition of Memphis.

Divisional play still might not start until 2015, when Navy joins. The eastern division might include UConn, Rutgers, Navy, South Florida, Central Florida and Cincinnati -- all subject to change.

Syracuse and Pittsburgh are scheduled to leave the Big East for the Atlantic Coast Conference in 2014, though they might leave a year sooner.